What
is a Hospital Lien and How Does it affect your Personal Injury Case?

Many people go to the
emergency room after a car accident and do not have health
insurance. Then the hospital finds out they were injured as a result of a
car accident. The hospital, or a law firm for the hospital, then sends a
certified letter informing them that the hospital intends to file a hospital
lien.

If you received one of these
letters, you may be wondering what a hospital lien is.

A hospital lien is a type of
lien that attaches to a recovery or settlement of a personal injury case,
meaning it will have to be paid for from the patient’s personal injury settlement
or verdict. Other medical providers that can use this lien include nursing
homes, physicians’ practices, and providers of traumatic burn care. The
lien is not against you personally but against your cause of action.

You
should seek medical attention immediately after your workplace injury. If
you need emergency care, seek treatment as soon as possible. Do not worry
about having to pay a hospital bill. Your Employer’s workers’
compensation insurance should pay for your hospital bill.

2)
Notify Your Employer ASAP

If
your injury is not an emergency, you should let your supervisor know about your
injury as soon as possible after your accident. In Georgia, you must
inform your employer about your injury within 30 days after your injury
occurred. The sooner you report it the better. If you wait
too long, it raises the question whether the injury occurred on the job.

3)
Document Everything

Be
sure to write down exactly how your injury occurred. Also, be sure to
write down the names of any witnesses to your injury. The other thing to...

Many people get whiplash injuries from car accidents. A whiplash injury is also called a cervical sprain, a cervical strain, a neck sprain, or a neck strain. A whiplash injury is basically a combination of symptoms that occur from damage to the neck. In a whiplash injury, the intervertebral joints, discs, ligaments, cervical muscles, and nerve roots in the neck may become damaged.

What happens in a car accident and why people get whiplash injuries?

Whiplash is caused from an abrupt forward and backward jerking motion of someone’s head. Essentially, the force caused from an impact in a car accident causes someone’s head to abruptly jerk forward and then back (sometimes to the right then left or left to the right or even back then forward). Whiplash injuries can be extremely painful.

Car accidents are caused by intoxicated drivers every day. It is sad, but true. You hear about it all the time on the local news. I have successfully represented many clients who were injured as a result of someone driving while intoxicated or high on drugs.

It is important not let someone drive away from an accident scene if you smell alcohol or they look like they are high on drugs. Many people do not know that if someone is cited and convicted for O.C.G.A. § 40-6-391 an injured person is entitled to punitive damages under Georgia law. And punitive damages greatly increase the value of a personal injury claim if presented to the insurance company in the right way.

What are punitive damages and why are they so important?

Being different from compensatory damages, which compensate people for their medical bills, financial losses, injuries, and pain and suffering, punitive damages are intended to punish and deter reckless conduct. In order to recover punitive damages, it must be proven by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant’s actions showed “willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression, or the entire want of care which would raise the presumption of conscious indifference to consequences.” O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1

My firm recently successfully represented a client in a unique case where someone was injured from a hook left in a piece of seafood.

Liability for the sellers of dangerous food in Georgia is codified in the Georgia Food Act.

The Georgia Food Act (O.C.G.A. §§ 26-2-20 et seq.) prohibits the adulteration or misbranding of food and the manufacture, sale, or delivery of any food that is adulterated or misbranded. Food is adulterated within the meaning of the Georgia Food Act if it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render it injurious to health. O.C.G.A. § 26-2-26(1). Adulteration can occur when there is a foreign object in the food that was sold. Additionally, liability for sellers of unwholesome food is based on O.C.G.A. § 51-1-23.

O.C.G.A. § 51-1-23 reads as follows:

Any person who knowingly or negligently sells unwholesome provisions of any kind to another person, the defect being unknown to the purchaser, by the use of which damage...